Tax Lien Investing - Thoughts?

[Benjamin Lewis]

I am going into my Junior year in college and am looking to get into real estate investment for sure when I graduate, and maybe even house hack a duplex senior year. But, I have been looking into tax lien investing lately. I know the foreclosure rate is only like .5% and takes 6 months to 2 years from start to finish if a lien goes unpaid. I was debating buying some tax liens in my area around school. I figure if I get paid or not, I either get good interest or a property in my last 2 years at school. I was wondering if anyone else has done any tax lien investing and had any sort of success with it? I assume the major pitfalls are not doing your due diligence and complying with all the rules involved with notifying effected parties, difficulty collecting payment, and cost/time it takes to foreclose if need be. I just figured if I can get lucky and get a property for a fraction of the market value at a time where I  and am a full time student and will not be able to qualify for any sort of financing why not try it?